And the Band Played On
by Kel the Nightmare
Summary: One-shot: A very short story about a ship, a disaster, death, and the three beings watching it. It’s things like this that make you wonder. How will you face death?


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_AN: This is a very short story I wrote at about two thirty am, saved in a random file, and have just recently found. I do not own Holly, Root, Foaly, or the ship. The ship is never named, but if you can't figure out which one it is, go rent yourself a brain._

"Sir, I can't watch this."

Corporal Holly Short was hovering shielded over the North Atlantic Ocean. Beside her was her superior, Commander Julius Root of LEPrecon. She had been newly promoted to Recon, and was doing her best to impress the commander, not objecting to anything he said.

But this she had to oppose to. This was disgusting.

"We don't have much of a choice, Short," he growled over the helmet communication system. "Anything this big needs to be recorded for the LEP database."

"Thousands of people are dying before your eyes!" she protested, pointing down at the huge ship below. "Don't you have an ounce of compassion for them?"

"They are humans, Corporal," Root said slowly, as if he were explaining it to a mentally impaired child. "They drove us out of our rightful homes, and they pollute the air and water we breathe and drink. So no, I do not have an ounce of compassion for them."

"I'm going to have to side with the little lady on this one, Julius," said a sickened voice. "This isn't right, humans or not."

"No one asked you, Foaly," scowled the older elf. "And you'd better be recording this, you stupid pony, or the Council is going to have your hooves mounted on their meeting room wall. And don't call me Julius."

Another batch of flares was launched into the night sky, exploding in a dazzling display of light. It would have been beautiful under different circumstances. Through the boom of the flares and the frightened cries of the doom people below, faint music could be heard, sad and sweet.

"And the band played on," whispered Foaly, swallowing hard.

Commander Root heard a small sob through his helmet speakers, and rolled his eyes. "Short, if you're crying, I swear to Frond I'm going to come over there, and I'm going to slap you."

"I'm not crying," Holly insisted defensively. "But… Just listen, Commander. People are dying. Children are dying. These may be humans, but even humans shouldn't have to suffer like this. Didn't you hear the order of woman and children first?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" he grunted.

"Families are being torn apart. Fathers are comforting their children, and telling them that they'll meet again in New York in a day or two. They never will. They have about half an hour to live, if that. There are not even enough lifeboats for the entire ship, for Frond's sake! All this could have been prevented!"

The commander was silent.

"And what about those who aren't on the deck? Those who are below, either trapped or willingly. People are locked in the bottom, probably all drowned by now. Men are sitting in the dining room, playing cards as cool and can be as they await their death."

"Humans never learn, do they?" said the centaur sadly.

"People are watching their family die while they live, and vice versa," continued the elf. "It makes you think, doesn't it? How will you face your death? What would you do if you were down there? Would you sit back and play a hand of cards? Would you say goodbye to your family, and keep false hope that you'd survive? Or would you cheat your way into a lifeboat, and forever live with the knowledge that you could have saved the lives of a mother and her child?"

"Now listen here, Short…" he started, but was unable to finish.

"And the crew! Have you noticed the electricity just went off? Boiler room workers died with their coal shovels in their hands, just to keep the ship lit. And the band's playing as the world around them falls to pieces. Would you face death that way?"

There was silence among the faeries. The only sounds for a while were the screaming and sobbing of the humans below. They were dying on the ship that had been deemed unsinkable. It had been said that God himself could not sink that ship. He sure showed them.

"There is nothing we can do," Commander Root said finally. "There is nothing at all that we can do."

There was a sickening crack as the ship split in half. The front plummeted towards the bottom, but the back stuck up in the air, bobbing like a giant cork. It too sunk. Soon, all that was on the calm water was the lifeboats, debris, and corpses.

"So," Holly breathed after the night air carried a deadly silence. "How will you face death?"

"I don't know," admitted her superior. "But I hope I face it something like that."


End file.
